Santa Cruz Warriors assistant coach Mike Lee was on the Harlem Globetrotters team from 2005-06. (Contributed)

If You Go

Harlem Globetrotters at Santa Cruz Warriors

When: Thursday, 7 p.m.

Where: KP Arena, Santa Cruz

Details: santacruzbasketball.com

The Harlem Globetrotters are known for their quirky style of playing basketball. Not ones for a mundane layup or jumper, they make fancy half-court hook shots, over-the-top alley-oops and playful interaction with the crowd part of every play.

On Thursday, the Globetrotters are scheduled to bring their acrobatic and off-the wall play to Santa Cruz County for the first time in the team’s 91-year history. They’ll play the World All-Stars, formerly known as the Washington Generals, at 7 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente Arena.

Some people say it’s just a show, but Santa Cruz Warriors assistant coach Mike Lee likes to think otherwise.

“It’s a game, it’s a game,” he said. “When the Globetrotters started, it was all about proving that these were reputable players that can compete with, at that time, the professional game.”

Lee knows first-hand the Globtrotters’ credentials. He was a member of the highly-esteemed, though quirky and often zany, team for a year. He crafted his half-court hook shot and made more than 200 appearances, including in three international stops — in South Korea, Guam and Canada.

Lee said the Globetrotters put on a good show, but deep down the players are also very competitive when it comes to basketball.

“It was kind of funny because you don’t relate Mike to being a Globetrotter dude,” Santa Cruz Warriors coach Aaron Miles said.

Miles should know. He and his assistant have a long history.

Lee played alongside Miles at the University of Kansas for four years. During their tenure, the Jayhawks won three Big 12 titles and reached the NCAA championship game in 2002. Lee and Miles also won the 2000 high school basketball state title at Jefferson of Portland with a team that finished 28-0 overall.

“As it pertains to basketball, I don’t believe I’d be where I am today without Aaron,” Lee said.

Still, they go back even further than youth basketball. Lee’s dad, John Sr., coached Miles’ dad, Mark Sr., at Portland Community College. Several years later, the two connected during baseball season, where Miles met Lee and Lee’s older brother, John Jr. Miles said they formed a tight bond in the community by playing baseball, basketball and football together.

“When you do things like that with a group of dudes that you grew up with is special,” Miles said. “It really goes from just being friends and teammates to ‘That’s my brother.’ You really start to value that family atmosphere.”

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Miles signed with the Golden State Warriors after graduating from Kansas. Then he played with the Fort Wayne Flyers, which are part of the NBA G League. He continued to play in Europe for six different teams and another stint in the G League with the Reno Bighorns in 2010, which was Golden State’s affiliate at the time.

Meanwhile, Lee was also trying to establish a basketball career for himself.

Lee initially turned down the first offer from the Globetrotters in 2005. Like most players coming out of college, he had aspirations of playing competitively overseas. But after giving it much thought, he called the Globetrotters to see if he could still join.

“Luckily enough, they let me come in,” Lee said.

He started with a U.S. domestic tour, going from city to city. Lee said part of his role was to be always dancing, smiling and jumping around, which is something out of the norm for competitive basketball players.

He admitted it was probably one of the most difficult transitions for him during his basketball career.

“Anybody who knows me knows I’m not a showman,” Lee said. “That’s just not me when it comes to basketball. That was the hardest part, just keeping my interest. But at the time when I came into the Globetrotters, I was still considered a competitive player.”

Lee said he still got a chance to “play” during the final two to three minutes of each quarter, which was meant to allow the showmen to rest while the competitive players balled out.

“They come out and we go in and we just play real basketball,” Lee said. “That’s what I really wanted to do at that time, so it was hard.”

After his adventure with the Globetrotters, Lee had a brief stint in France playing for the Entente Orleans 45 basketball team.

Lee has some experience coaching at the collegiate level — two years at Gardner-Webb and three at San Francisco. In 2015, he took over coaching duties at Roosevelt High in Portland before he arrived to Santa Cruz.

“It’s only fitting and it’s an honor to have him by my side,” Miles said. “He’s loyal, he’s dedicated, hard-working, trustworthy and anything positive you can say about a person, that’s him.”

Lee has all the good qualities of being a great mentor and coach, but he left the cheering and jumping around when he left the Globetrotters. Still, he knows that’s part of what makes them fun to watch. He’s especially excited about them now that the Globetrotters introduced basketball’s first ever 4-point line for their 2017 tour.

The 4-point line is 30 feet away from the hoop, which is over six feet beyond the NBA’s current 3-point line.

“I love the 4-point line, because it has more of a basketball feel,” said Firefly on the Harlem Globetrotter official website. “I can come down and shoot a 4-pointer from anywhere beyond the line instead of having to run to a specific spot. It gives us a lot more freedom to be players while still displaying our great shooting ability.”

Firefly made a Globetrotters-record 10 straight 4-point shots in a game but “Ant” Atkinson holds the single-game record with 22 4-pointers and 93 points.

Lee said the show might be slightly different from when he was playing, but fans will still enjoy what’s in store for them.

“It’s a family atmosphere. You’re going to laugh, you’re going to smile,” he said. “From what I’ve been hearing about Santa Cruz and how they get behind their sports teams, I think they’re in for a real treat.”